I wanted to post this here in case some members do want to remaster and perhaps discuss it. Maybe you'll find a better way than I did. If so, I'd like to know. As I wrote else where at least this way you can pre-configure at the start and start over if need be- a little ahead of the game. See 'Aptosid Remasterys success' to see how I got it working and improved it as I learned what the hell I was doing.

Please note that Remastersys is not 'supported' by Aptosid. There be dragons here

To everyone, please don't jump in here to stir the pot, hijack the thread and create more trouble. Keep it civil and on topic before I (or anyone else with "the power") lose patience and dive into the admin panel to start disabling accounts

Now to keep it on topic myself, I just don't understand the fascination with "remasters". From what I understand in this case what is really being done is a bootable backup disc which could as easily be done by rebuilding an aptosid iso to just include an archive (e.g. tar) of the backed up system which can be restored from the live boot. Or even easier just put the backup on it's own disk and boot from any normal aptosid iso (or other live system) to restore it.

If you really want a bootable version of your configured system then you could just create a usb stick with persistance, configure that and then install from it.

Of course if the vast majority of your configuration is really just installing some particular packages then you could use pyfll to create your own clean iso with the software you want. If you go down this route then in the process you may come up with patches for pyfll (or the other related packages) which will be more generally useful and help aptosid and any other distro which might decide to use the fullstory sources for themselves.

Finally if you _really_ want to play with what I would call "remasters", then why not just "update" the squashfs file from an aptosid iso and then burn a new iso with the updated squashfs? Bonus points in that case for making sure you update the md5sums file on the disc, but that doesn't matter for your own personal toys. Examining pyfll would help you find commands for stripping superfluous data from the squashfs and building a final iso correctly (or just look at fll-iso-strip for the last part).

xetaprime

Post subject:Posted: 21.06.2011, 16:50

Joined: 2011-06-04
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Hello bfree,

Quote:

From what I understand in this case what is really being done is a bootable backup disc which could as easily be done by rebuilding an aptosid iso to just include an archive (e.g. tar) of the backed up system which can be restored from the live boot. Or even easier just put the backup on it's own disk and boot from any normal aptosid iso (or other live system) to restore it.

If you really want a bootable version of your configured system then you could just create a usb stick with persistance, configure that and then install from it.

Questions- Will rebuilding Aptosid and including an archive leave you with an identical system? Say, like me who is using e17 or is that just so everything is ready to be installed? If you make your bootable usb- is that installble to HD if one wishes- I think before it was mentioned that Pyfll is needed to make an iso.

My thing is, I know Remastersys. And once I figured out how to make sure I had all the packages needed, it takes no time at all to do 'remastersys backup'. I get that if you don't play to much with your system, there's not a need to remaster. And I'll be honest and say that this is about saving time for me. It was a challenge (half of the fun) to get Remastersys working but I already had a base knowledge of it. With Pyfll- haven't gone there yet (learning curve). But now that it is set up, there's nothing more to do than 'backup' and 'clean'. So I admit I was working from a point of packages that I already had a grasp of.

Best wishes,
Xeta

P.S. If anyone has an idea why the 'live dvd' doesn't reboot the system (only ejects)upon logout/shutdown I'd love to know. It might be some simple package I missed. If I remember correctly- been all over the place, I think the 32 bit did not have this issue.

bfree

Post subject:Posted: 21.06.2011, 17:13

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xetaprime wrote:

Questions- Will rebuilding Aptosid and including an archive leave you with an identical system?

The archive is a backup, you restore, re-install grub and reboot to get back into the system as it was when you backed it up.

xetaprime wrote:

Say, like me who is using e17 or is that just so everything is ready to be installed?

I don't understand the question. You backup your system and just use the stock aptosid system to restore it, reboot and you are back where you were when you took the backup.

xetaprime wrote:

If you make your bootable usb- is that installble to HD if one wishes- I think before it was mentioned that Pyfll is needed to make an iso.

Yes (at least last time I checked, which admitedly was a few years ago, it would install your modified system), that's why I finished up saying "and then you install from it". You don't make an iso.

So, why the hell not, I installed Aptosid to USB. Where is the option to install that, to hard drive. I see the usb installer, but I can't change it to sda?

I will look more into Pyfll because isos are convenient. I have a stack of DVDs vs two USBs. For now though, I already have my remastered e17 Aptosid so at least there's no hurry. I know that once you know something, things speed up and the time spent learning becomes an after thought. I explored remastersys for me and the fact I believe, I heard it wouldn't work. When I hear 'It won't work' it's like 'Want Pizza!' YES!!! Even if Remastersys is pointless- or not- I did learn some things and did get it working save for the dvd not shutting the pc down. No regrets.

bfree

Post subject:Posted: 22.06.2011, 00:31

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You boot from the usb stick then after you boot it up you do whatever you want to the live system and then run the installer to make a normal install on hd. Once you tick persist when you create the usb stick then whatever changes you make while booted from the usb stick will be saved on it so you can boot it again to install it again with the changes you had already made.

That usb installer you are seeing is to put aptosid onto usb (the first step), once you've booted from usb you can install that normally. Check out the manual for more.

xetaprime

Post subject:Posted: 22.06.2011, 12:31

Joined: 2011-06-04
Posts: 81

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Good morning bfree

Quote:

That usb installer you are seeing is to put aptosid onto usb (the first step), once you've booted from usb you can install that normally. Check out the manual for more.

Two questions or not. I do ask though not to be ehh, bashed for being somewhat naive about Aptosid on USB because this was never an interest until now.

1. Is my mistake not burning the iso to usb first (not to cd) to have the full installer present? From the live cd, clicking persist and installing to USB, still leaves the usb with no option to install to hd. Is it because I didn't set up persist?

Here's where it gets dicey... and if anyone can give me a pointer even if this whole act is senseless that would be great. Obviously I have a lot of time on my hands :0

2. On the live cd, if I copy from /usr/bin the aptosid installer and install-gui.bash to the usb- I can run install-gui.bash but, the partion option is missing- meaning no install hd option- but, the installer as seen on the live cd does open. I know! I just couldn't help copying them over. Any ideas what else to get the full livecd installer over to usb?

I did look at the manual. But I didn't see how to install what is on the usb, to the pc. I'm probably blind to it...

The installer only runs on a live system so forget about trying to copy stuff over.

That sounds like a challenge

Now you tell me.

I actually made some progress in this regard. After installing fll-common the installer did show all my drives/partitions and went through the whole process- username/password right up to begin install having my sda3 listed. Unfortunately even though it said it was starting installation with the moving bar- nothing was happening.

I'll give it a rest and try again tomorrow

okay, I won't Or maybe... never mind.

Best,
Xeta

xetaprime

Post subject: Remastersys and Bacon Posted: 25.06.2011, 10:08

Joined: 2011-06-04
Posts: 81

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Good Morning,

Remastersys saved my bacon. For some reason the mic on my quickcam pro 9000 wasn't working in google talk. For some other reason I decided badly to play with pulse audio :0 This morning when I booted in I had no sound. For about 5 minutes I googled the problem and then decided to reinstall a backup I made a few days ago when I was playing with the aptosid installer.